Acc to mediazzzona there is an ongoing hostage situation in a prison in Rostov, Russia - the hostage takers say they are #IS#daesh#isis#IslamicState members. Shootouts at checkpoints and targeting of policemen has been the main method the IS #Caucasus branch has kept active since the loss of the #caliphate
In its latest special, #Theglobaljigsaw has looked into IS' evolution and re-emergence - some quotes to follow in a thread
Depending on how you look at it, I either grew up in the periphery of the labor movement, or atop it, or surrounded by it. For a kid, labor issues don't really hold a lot of urgency - in places with mature labor movements, kids don't really have jobs, and the part-time jobs I had as a kid (paper route, cleaning a dance studio) were pretty benign.
That means that even though the UAW lost their election, they might inflict serious pain on Mercedes, who face a fine of 2% of global annual revenue, and a ban on selling cars to the German government:
This is another way reversal of the post-neoliberal era. Whereas once the US exported its most rapacious corporate practices all over the world, today, global labor stands a chance of exporting workers' rights from weak territories to strong ones.
OMG UAW is running CIRCLES against car manufacturers. UAW files charges in Germany (!) accusing Mercedes Benz of violating a Germany law that took effect in 2023.
Using Amazon, or Twitter, or Facebook, or Google, or Doordash, or Uber doesn't make you lazy. Platform capitalism isn't enshittifying because you made the wrong shopping choices.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
We're not just "consumers" or "citizens" - we're also workers, and when workers come together in unions, they, too, can concentrate the diffuse, atomized power of the individual into a single, powerful entity that can hold the forces of capital in check:
Here's a silver lining to global monopoly capitalism: it means we're all fighting the same enemy, who is using the same tactics everywhere. The same coordination tools that allow corporations to extend their tendrils to every corner of the Earth allows regulators and labor organizers to coordinate their resistance.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
#Lifehacking is in pretty bad odor these days, and with good reason: a once-useful catch-all for describing how to make things easier has become a pit of #ProductivityPorn, grifter hustling, and anodyne advice wreathed in superlatives and transformed into SEO-compliant listicles.
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
For Zittrain, "generativity" was the property of some technologies that let its users generate new, useful tools and solutions for themselves (this is very different from "#GenerativeAI!")
Zittrain described how "curated" computing systems, like mobile devices that relied on apps that couldn't be adapted by their users, were dead ends for generativity. 15 years later, the dismal world of apps has proven him right:
Enjoyed Cory Doctorow @pluralistic 's new essay re user "desire paths," ad blockers and apps. "This is why services are so horny to drive you to install their app rather using their websites: they are trying to get you to do something that, given your druthers, you would prefer not to do. They want to force you to exit through the gift shop, you want to carve a desire path straight to the parking lot." https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/24/everything-not-mandatory/#is-prohibited
If you've ever read about design, you've probably encountered the idea of #PavingTheDesirePath. A #DesirePath is an erosion path created by people departing from the official walkway and taking their own route. The story goes that smart campus planners don't fight the desire paths laid down by students; they pave them, formalizing the route that their constituents have voted for with their feet.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog: